Chapter 1086: Ancient Sword

A deafening boom rang out as a wave of reddish-black light swept over the entire cave, causing it to collapse, and Han Li's group was buried under a vast volume of rubble.

Thankfully, everyone was well-versed in earth movement techniques, and they were able to burrow their way into the ground right as the cave collapsed.

However, as soon as they made their way underground, a burst of sinister cackling instantly rang out, immediately following which a giant black claw the size of a house emerged from deeper underground to make a grab for everyone.

The giant claw was attached to a massive, lizard-like creature, but its body was far more bloated than that of a lizard.

The creature was lurking underground, and its aura was completely indistinguishable from that of the earth around it, so its sneak attack had caught everyone completely off guard.

By the time everyone realized that there was something lurking underground, it was already too late to take evasive measures.

Right as everyone was about to fall into the grasp of the giant creature, Han Li swept a sleeve through the air to release a bolt of radiant golden lightning that struck the oncoming claw with a loud thump.

The bolt of lightning was tiny compared with the black claw, but it was able to tear through the latter with ease, following which it struck the giant beast's chest, blasting a hole the size of a water vat into its body.

The lizard-like creature let loose a blood-curdling howl, and it immediately attempted to flee deeper underground, but by then, Lei Yuce and the others had also begun lashing out against.

The creature was instantly overwhelmed by a devastating barrage of attacks, tearing its body to shreds.

As was the case with the wolf-like beasts from earlier, its body also disintegrated into black smoke, and even though it was underground, it still spread rapidly in all directions, staining all of the soil and rocks that it came into contact with black.

The black smoke instantly swept over everyone, and they hurriedly conjured up layers of protective spiritual light to try and keep it at bay.

Xiong Shan was at the very back of the group, and he did the same thing, managing to ward off the black smoke with a layer of golden spiritual light, but right at this moment, an extremely faint glimmer of black light shot out of the black smoke before piercing through Xiong Shan's protective spiritual light and vanishing into his body.

However, this went completely undetected by everyone, including even Xiong Shan himself.

After slaying the lizard beast, everyone continued onward for quite some time, and only after advancing beyond the collapsed section of the underground cave did they return to the surface.

"My sincerest apologies, everyone. My rash actions placed all of you in a perilous situation," Wen Zhong said in an apologetic manner.

"There's no need to be so self-critical, Fellow Daoist Wen. None of us could've anticipated that those beads would explode upon contact," Su Anqian consoled. "By the way, Fellow Daoist Han, you seemed to be aware of what those things were, would you be able to enlighten us?"

Everyone else also turned their attention to Han Li upon hearing this, and he explained, "Those wolf-like creatures were Devilish Corpse Wolves, a type of devil beast found in the Devil Realm, so it's no surprise that none of you recognized them. These creatures manifest Corpse Fire Beads in their bodies that instantly explode upon contact with any other type of energy."

Everyone was enlightened upon hearing this, but at the same time, they couldn't help but wonder how Han Li was familiar with these creatures. Could it be that he had been to the Devil Realm before?

Despite everyone's curiosity, no one dared to pry, and the group continued onward in silence.

After advancing for roughly another fifteen minutes, a huge, open area that was over a hundred times larger than the cave from before appeared up ahead.

There were piles of golden ore strewn all over the area, with the largest ones piling up to several hundred feet tall to resemble small mountains, while the smallest ones were only slightly taller than the average adult human, and it seemed that they had been arranged in a set formation.

Everyone exchanged a few wary glances with one another upon seeing this, and they carefully proceeded into the area.

Thankfully, after stepping into the array of ores, nothing happened, and after a brief pause, everyone continued onward.

Before long, they had already traveled for close to ten kilometers.

All of a sudden, there were no more piles of ore to be seen, and a small plaza appeared up ahead.

The plaza was paved with radiant, golden tiles, and at its center stood a golden altar that was over a thousand feet tall. The altar was split up into the three tiers and was entirely constructed from a type of golden material. Furthermore, the structure appeared to consist of only a single piece, with no signs of connective segments to be seen.

At the top of the altar was a golden platform that was around ten feet in size, engraved onto which was a golden yin yang symbol. Pierced into one side of the yin yang symbol was a strange, golden sword with a three-sided blade. On one side was engraved the sun, the moon, and stars, on another side was engraved a piece of scenery complete with mountains, rivers, and forests, and on the final side were engravings of a dragon and a phoenix.

Bright, golden light was emanating from the ancient sword, releasing bursts of metal law power fluctuations that struck everyone with a slightly painful sensation, as if their skin were about to be sliced open.

Hovering above the other side of the yin yang symbol was a golden flame the size of a human head, giving off bursts of formidable time law power fluctuations.

Bursts of golden runes were flowing out of the yin yang symbol, spreading over the entire altar to form a cage-shaped array.

The metal and time law powers intertwined with one another, and not only were they not in conflict at all, they coexisted extremely harmoniously, encompassing the entire altar.

However, what was far less harmonious was the giant black rift above the altar, out of which gusts of howling black wind were blowing incessantly, looking as if they were coming straight from the depths of hell.

The array of ore around the plaza seemed to have an aura concealment effect, so no one had detected the existence of the altar prior to this, and everyone was immediately rooted to the spot by the enormous aura that the altar was releasing.

"What is this? A seal?" Su Anqian exclaimed with a stunned expression.

Han Li was also observing the altar with a surprised expression, and his gaze quickly fell upon the ancient sword and the golden flame at the top of the altar.

That sword is forged from none other than Heavenly Vajra Diamond! No wonder it has such a powerful aura! As for that golden flame, the time law powers imbued within it are very peculiar. It's completely different from any of the five types of law powers in the Great Five Elemental Illusion Mantra...

In contrast with everyone's stunned reactions, Lei Yuce and Wen Zhong were much more composed, and they exchanged an elated glance with one another.

At the very back of the group, Xiong Shan was completely rooted to the spot at the sight of the ancient, golden sword at the top of the altar, and his breathing began to accelerate as a look of intense desire appeared in his eyes.

𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

He swept his gaze briefly over Han Li and the others, then abruptly shot forth through the air while conjuring up a giant, golden hand that made a grab for the ancient sword.

"Don't be reckless, Fellow Daoist Xiong!"

Everyone was very alarmed to see this, and in particular, Lei Yuce and Wen Zhong flew forward in unison to try and stop Xiong Shan, but it was already too late.

A resounding boom rang out as the golden hand closed itself around the ancient sword, only for countless streaks of golden swordlight to erupt out of the sword, tearing the giant hand into ribbons with ease.

On top of that, the sword began to tremble and buzz as if it had been enraged by Xiong Shan's gestures, and it released a flurry of translucent sword qi that erupted through the air in all directions.

Everyone hurriedly sprang into action to defend themselves from the streaks of formidable sword qi.

The Lan siblings were facing each other as Lan Yuanzi opened his mouth to release a blue bead, which had eight blue, dragon-shaped runes engraved upon it.

The blue bead transformed into a spherical light barrier that was several dozen feet in size at his behest, encompassing both himself and Lan Yan.

At the same time, Wyrm 3 swept a sleeve through the air to release a small shield amid a flash of white light, and the shield swelled rapidly in size before transforming into a white light barrier around herself and Fox 3.

Lei Yuce and Wen Zhong were also working together, releasing numerous small, golden flags out of their sleeves, which descended onto the ground to form a circle around them.

The flags released bursts of dazzling, golden light, forming a golden array that encompassed both of them within it, following which Lei Yuce turned to Su Anqian as he urged, "Come in here, Celestial Maiden Su!"

The golden array then extended toward her at his behest to encompass her within it, elongating the circular array into an oval.

A series of mixed emotions flashed through Su Anqian's eyes, but she didn't take any evasive measures, allowing the golden light barrier to enshroud her.

However, for her part, she summoned a large, blue flag, which released a burst of blue ripples to form a separate blue light barrier that also encompassed all three of them.

Meanwhile, Han Li let loose a low roar as all of his profound acupoints lit up, following which his True Extreme Film surfaced over his body.

On top of that, he swept a sleeve through the air to release thirty-six Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, which circled around him to form a golden sword barrier with arcs of lightning flashing over its surface.

Immediately thereafter, the streaks of translucent sword qi descended upon him, striking the golden sword barrier from all directions.

The sword barrier began trembling violently as a string of loud explosions rang out, and even though the thirty-six Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords remained unharmed, the sword array that they had formed was on the verge of falling apart.

Han Li's expression changed slightly upon seeing this, and he flew back in retreat along with his sword array while releasing two thick bolts of golden lightning out of his hands into the surrounding sword array.

The array had been on the verge of collapse, but it was instantly stabilized.

However, several streaks of translucent sword qi still managed to sneak through and strike him before the array was completely stabilized.

Thankfully, his True Extreme Film was able to withstand them with ease.

One's True Extreme Film became more powerful as one opened more profound acupoints. Having already opened close to a thousand profound acupoints, Han Li's True Extreme Film was more powerful than any defensive immortal treasure in his possession.

At this point, he had flown out of the range of the sword qi, and he descended onto a pile of ore outside the plaza.